Consolidate Digging and Disintegration

[WalkerBoh]

Proposal: Remove the wand of digging. The wand of disintegration still works the same on enemies and statues and doors and such as it does currently, but now acts like the current wand of digging when used on walls (i.e., carves out multiple spaces instead of only 1).

Benefits:
- Reduces item clutter (there are already a LOT of different wand types).
- Simplifies effects of disintegration and eliminates special casing with digging (e.g.: currently digging works on iron grates but not doors).
- Makes "kill holes" slightly less safe - enemies can now blink behind you, summon things behind you, and trample you backwards.

I would suggest just simply removing digging, but I think that digging has more interesting effects when used on walls than disintegration does. This is a fairly simple improvement and doesn't have any real drawbacks that I can see. Feel free to mercilessly demonstrate my ignorance, though.

[crate]

I'd rather remove disintegration wand entirely. Silver/orange crystal statues are bad monsters anyway partly because of their interaction with disint, so no loss there. This does make doors harder to destroy than currently but that seems acceptable to me (especially since you can't disint locked doors anyway). This is also simpler than making disintegration more complicated.

[Igxfl]

Orange Crystal Statue + Wand of Disintegrate is one of the Nethackiest interactions in the game.

[spudwalt]

Still, there is something to be said for having a wand that can deal heavy damage and is resisted by MR instead of AC/EV/elemental resists. Even if we took out disintegrating statue enemies, I'd still carry a wand of disintegration for fighting things like boggarts or Sonja. Disintegration also works on trees, which is something dig can't affect.

[duvessa]

Still, there is something to be said for having a wand that can deal heavy damage and is resisted by MR instead of AC/EV/elemental resists.

Is there? Seems awfully similar to a wand of paralysis/confusion/enslavement to me.

[Igxfl]

If we need an MR-based direct damage wand, I'd rather have /agony than /disintegration. It's more different from the others.

[MiraclePrism]

Is the damage from /disint actually worth using? I've never used it for that past Lair or so, because it's usually too hard to get past the MR check.

[TeshiAlair]

Right, but it is a great wand to hold on to pre/during Lair, especially for whittling down enemies or dealing with a Hydra coming at a bad time.

[HenryFlower]

Orange Crystal Statue + Wand of Disintegrate is one of the Nethackiest interactions in the game.

This. What's the play value of a monster that you either avoid or instakill, and if you aren't spoiled, is a (slow, painful, frustrating) instadeath?

[Lyrick]

if you aren't spoiled, is a (slow, painful, frustrating) instadeath?

  Code:

Orange Crystal Statue

...

It is very brittle and susceptible to disintegration.


Spoil youself with xv!

I do agree with consolidating disintegration and digging. Now one wand does the job of two and no one would miss having to carry an extra 10 AUM.